Chapter 65: Requesting Lessons
Chapter 65: Requesting Lessons
Even without my left hand, I have a feeling I’ll improve if this person teaches me. This is purely intuition, but I won’t know until I actually try.I walked along the edge of the vacant lot and approached Bob Brunning. He had already noticed me coming and turned his face toward me. He looked me up and down with narrowed eyes.
"What’s up, kid? Need something?"
That picture-perfect gruff tone! I almost teared up.
"I’m sorry for the sudden visit. My name is Robin Murray. Would you please teach me swordsmanship?"
"Sword? Me teaching a kid like you?"
"Yes, me."
"Hmph. I don’t mind teaching you, but I’m not doing it for free."
"Yes, I understand. However, I can’t pay too much..."
"How much can you pay?"
"Umm... actually, I don’t receive a regular allowance. I just get money when I need it, so I can’t give a clear answer... but, for example, I think I could manage one silver coin per lesson."
"One silver coin? Hmm, well, that’s fine. For today, let’s call it a trial run—free of charge. I want to see what you can do. Grab a stick or something from around here and swing it."
"Yes."
Instead of a random stick, I picked up a sword with its blade blunted and began doing practice swings. Whoosh, whoosh.
"Hmm... not bad. Looks like I don’t need to teach you the basics. In that case, want to spar with me a bit?"
"Eh!? Is that okay?"
"Yeah, it’s fine. Let’s do it."
The instructor (I suppose I can call him that now, even though I haven’t paid yet) picked up a sword that was lying nearby, gave it a couple of practice swings, and said casually,
"Alright, come at me. Strike whenever you want."
He’s only using one hand. I gripped my sword with both hands as usual and attacked!
I swung downward toward the front of his body. With a sharp clang!, my sword was deflected. The force pulled me off balance, and I staggered sideways. Even when Marin-sensei had deflected my strikes before, they hadn’t been this powerful. I was surprised by the strength.
"What’s wrong, kid?"